Carroll Shelby roared onto the racing scene in the early 1960s, and has remained a relevant figure all the way up until his death in the spring of 2012. If anything, Mr. Shelby became more popular than ever in his final years, with the launch of the most powerful GT500 in the history of the brand. Since his death, nearly anything associated with Carroll Shelby has gone up in value, and unique items may now be worth a small fortune to the right buyer.
eBay item # 281265880673 is a truly unique piece of Carroll Shelby history, though placing a cash value on it might be difficult. It’s a Cobra statue commissioned by Robert Petersen for Carroll Shelby, and now it can be part of your budding Shelby collection.
The one-of-a-kind piece was presented to Shelby at his surprise 65th birthday party put on by the crew at Road & Track at the Westin Hotel in Detroit. That was way back in 1988 if you can believe it, and Shelby stuck around for another 24 years before leaving this place. In that time the statue has sat in an unspecified “private collection”, and is only now going up for sale. It also comes with a newspaper clipping, a crisp copy of the Road & Track article following the party, and the name placards from Shelby’s table that include Peter Brock and Zora Arkus-Duntov.
As you can see from the pictures, it’s a fairly large piece, and if you placed it in the living room it’d dominate any conversation. But as part of a larger Shelby collection, buying this statue would be like adding a top-hat to an already well-dressed man. The opening bid starts at $7,500 for the two-piece fiberglass statue, which proves our previous point about the price of anything Carroll Shelby-related taking on a premium price since his passing.